Skip to content Rekindling the Fire of My Faith Aug 18 · 31 min ...more
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 Rekindling the fire of my faith. Take out your notes, and like we just read from second Timothy chapter 1, I I wanna talk to you about this guy named Timothy. He he's special in my life because I0:25 am named after him. My I don't have a Timothy as far as I know in my ancestry. My parents named me after this guy from the bible. Now I had a radically born0:37 again former pot smoking hippie youth pastor when I was a teenager, And he told me, you know, your name comes from the Greek, Timotheus. Timotheus. From 2 words in the Greek, timon, which means to honor, and0:48 theos, meaning God. So Timothy means honoring God. And I have tried in many ways as best as I can with the Holy Spirit's help to honor God with my life. Let me tell you after 47 years of1:00 living, you can't go wrong if you aim to honor God in your life. In fact, I would guarantee that most of your problems and hang ups are because of the areas of your life where you're not honoring God. And if you get1:11 these things right, if you get your whole if you get the Holy Spirit empowering your life to honor God with whatever area of your life is struggling, I'm telling you, it will turn around when God is honored in it.1:23 But at the time of this writing in second Timothy, Timothy, this young pastor of a major church in the first century in the city of Ephesus was struggling. He was at a spiritual low. He1:35 was wrestling with the demons we all wrestle with. Spiritual apathy, the attacks of the enemy, the inward struggle with your own personal issues and sins, the weight of1:47 the worries and the consummations of being a leader. He had for his mentor probably the greatest mentor you could pick, Paul the apostle, the great evangelist, the great missionary of the church who brought the1:59 gospel to all the known cities of the first century in the Roman empire. He writes 2 letters to Timothy. This is the second letter. This is Paul's final writing. This is his last letter that he wrote before he was pulled2:10 out of a Roman prison and had his head cut off at the request of emperor Nero who hated Christians in the first century. So these are his last words. And I want you to just think about this for a second. I believe every2:22 Christian needs to be a Timothy to somebody and needs to be a Paul to somebody. You need a Paul, somebody to mentor you, somebody who can model faith in your2:34 life, build you up, strengthen you, and teach you. And then you also need to pass it on. Too much of Christianity is feed me, bless me, empower me, lead me. At some point, you got to turn on the spigot and pass it on to2:45 somebody else and bless somebody and feed somebody and invest in somebody. I think every Christian needs a Paul, every Christian needs a Timothy. Or every Christian needs a Paulina and a Tammy. Amen.2:57 Investing in other people. And so Paul writes into the sky in second Timothy chapter 1 verse 2, he says to Timothy, my beloved child. I just thought about those lot those words, my beloved child. Let me ask3:09 you Christians, when's the last time you told another Christian you loved them? Notice Paul's affection for Timothy. Open affection. We need to hear I love you from people. I mean, if you're talking to3:21 a dude, you you don't say you, you say you. It softens it. It softens it up. It takes all the, you know, homosexuality out of it right there. Not I love you, I love you. I love you. Hey, I3:33 love you. It's just a little bit of a boost. Amen? So you need to say this. You need to, you know, you need to encourage people with your love. And he says, my beloved child. He wasn't his3:45 physical child. He was his spiritual child. And he says, grace, mercy, peace from God and from Jesus Christ. Now we know it's the last letter of Paul because at the end of the book in second Timothy chapter 4 verse 6,3:55 look what Paul writes. I'm being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I'm about to die. I'm about to go. He can read the writing on the wall. The persecution is ramping up against the4:06 church, and he is target number 1 for the enemy, and he knows. At any moment at any moment, he's dead. He's dead for the gospel. He's dead for Christ, and he's dead to this world, but he's alive to Christ. But he's4:17 writing to Timothy because he's heard reports that Timothy is feeling the weight of life, the weight of pastoral ministry. Can I tell you, pastoral ministry is tough? I've been through it. I've been doing4:29 pastoral ministry in my life since I was 27 years old. I'm now 47. I've been doing it 20 years. It's hard work. It's tough. And people will challenge you. And some of you gotta realize that you have a 1 on 1 kind of4:40 view of me, like it's just me and you, but you gotta understand there's a lot of other yous. There's a lot of other people in this church, and they're going through stuff, and I hear a lot of it. And I thank God for our4:50 under shepherds, our pastors who serve with me, the elders who take a brunt of the workload upon themselves so that it doesn't always come on me. There's no way this church could grow if it wasn't for our elders. And5:01 listen, our small group leaders, our life group leaders, and our location pastors, and I think we need to give them all a big hand right now and just celebrate them and thank God for them. It's hard work.5:13 Timothy's discouraged. Timothy is is weary. He he he's he's lost a little bit of his zest and his zeal and his passion for the Lord. And that's why Paul writes this word. I want you to fan in a flame the gift of God. You5:24 need to wake up, Timothy. How many know that we can go through seasons where we're just not as spiritually alive as we once were? How many of you have ever been through a couple of days like that? You're like, days?5:36 I've been through a decade like that, pastor. Look. We all go through that. We all go through that. Sometimes it's a decade. Sometimes it's a month. Sometimes it's a year. I think this fasting and prayer campaign is5:47 gonna rekindle some fire in a lot of people's lives. And I think about this as as young people need to understand, and the old people need to hear me say this to you, old people in the faith. I'm not talking about5:58 physical age, I'm talking about old in the faith. You need to listen up because you remember what it was like when you were young in the faith and everything was up and down. Everything was a roller coaster ride of6:10 emotions. Amen? When you're young in the faith, that's how it is. I wanna do a survey of our audience, and and just just be honest with me in this room. If you know, you're you're you're an old saint, but but you6:21 remember the early days of your faith where everything just kinda threw you for a loop. How many remember those days? Put your hand up. Yeah. By putting your hand up, just admitted that you're old. But I want you to6:31 admit I want you to also acknowledge that there's lots of people in our church that did not raise their hand. You know why? Because there is a youth movement in Waters Church right now. There is a youth movement afoot in6:42 Waters Church. I asked pastor Chris. He is in charge of our baptisms. I said, get me the average age of the last 100 baptisms. I was shocked. The average age of the last 100 baptisms at Waters Church is6:54 26 years old. Praise God. Young people. Young people are coming to Christ. So much for Christianity dying in7:06 America. So much for the faith being cast off by the next generation. I think the younger generation has been given every opportunity to satiate every lust of the flesh, and they've come up empty. And now they're looking7:17 to the real true living water of the Holy Ghost because nothing else in this world satisfies. I'm so excited. I'm so encouraged. And young people, you are not the future of the church. You7:29 are the church. But listen to me, Pauls. Older people in the faith, take notice of these people. They need you just like Timothy needed Paul. I wanna illustrate this on the7:40 whiteboard. Bring that whiteboard out for me, Adam, if you don't mind. I want you to write this down in your notes while he does that. Spiritual lows, l o w s, are unavoidable, but God's fullness is always available.7:52 You're gonna go through some low seasons just like Timothy did. You're gonna go through some low seasons just like I have, but god's fullness is available. I study sound design. I don't know if you're aware of8:04 what that is. It's it's the it's the science of mixing music, and I've studied this a lot. What you have to understand is that every sound that you hear is actually a invisible wave frequency8:16 in the auditory spectrum of the universe. And, I'm gonna I'm going to illustrate what a waveform looks like. Every waveform looks somewhat like this depending on the length of the8:28 sound and the impact of the sound. And so when you hear an impact, a waveform was just created. And let me tell you what that what that little smack looks like8:40 in in the unseen auditory reality. Here's what it looks like. So this first initial part is the transient. They call that the transient, and then this is the waveform8:52 that kind of, like, dies out, and this is what they call the release, if you will. It starts high, and it just kinda mellows out to nothing. Here's your life in Christ. There's BCU,9:04 there's the cross, and then there's ADU. But how many know when you come to Christ, that's where the enemy really tries to smack you upside the head. When the people of9:16 Israel come out of Egypt after the death of the firstborn, they're on their way into the promised land. It doesn't go easier. It gets harder. Pharaoh, rethinks letting them go and comes after them9:28 with his chariots and his horses. And they come up to the the sea, the ray the Red Sea, and and they're freaking out. And they look at Moses and they say, did you bring us out here to die? Here's Pharaoh's army coming up9:38 behind us. Here's the Red Sea in front of us. We're dead. We're dead meat. They're freaking out. They're overwhelmed. Moses turns to God. God says, don't look at me. Take your staff, put it over the sea, and divide it.9:49 And it does. It divides, they walk through sort of a spiritual baptism. But what you have to understand is that when you come to Christ, there's a target on your back from the spiritual enemy, and he's gonna try to smack9:59 you. He's gonna come along. Boom. He's gonna young lady, he's gonna reintroduce you to that loser boyfriend from your old life. Boom. Young man, he's gonna come and try to be another10:11 nuisance in your life, trying to bring you back to your old ways, get you to drink, smoke, do whatever it was you were doing before, smack you upside the head. See, young young person or or older person. He's gonna try10:22 to get your kids, get your family all up in a ruckus to to to drain you dry and and and wreck your spirit and bring all kinds of anxiety and stress upon your life. Don't be ignorant of the fact that the enemy10:34 comes like a flood, the Bible says. He comes after those who have walked out of his prison, out of his life. And what I have learned in my life is that when you're young in the faith, you go10:46 way up and you go way down when you're young in the faith. And this is where some of you are. In fact, 26 years old, average age of our baptism candidates, so I know I'm talking to some people. You10:58 get saved and just bam, and I get it, and I've been there. Way up. Oh, the Lord is good. Jesus was alive today in church. Pastor Tim, preach right to me. Hallelujah. I am so ready11:10 to serve the Lord. I am ready to take on all the challenges of my life. And then Monday comes, and you're like, oh, woe is me. And first Wednesday or Wednesday comes up, oh, the Holy Spirit got ahold11:22 of me. I am ready. I'm on fire. God is good. And then Thursday, somebody says something about your hair at work, you're like, oh, I just think. And it's just like, you know, you have these overwhelming, like, big, huge11:33 emotional swings. Now you're young, and that's totally understandable because we've all been there. We've all been there. But what I've learned is all you got to11:44 do is give it time. Because as you grow as a Christian, you don't have such a huge swing emotionally. Listen when the same things happen.11:58 You face the same troubles, you say you face the same demons, but you don't have the same reaction. Why? Because you've been there. You've gotten through some storms. You you had to freak out when you're in your early12:09 twenties. But when you're in your early forties, you're like, I've been here before. And me for me as a pastor, when I was young in this church and people would come up to me and say, Pastor, you have preached such a12:19 good message. Wow. That was a bit I'd be like, amen. I'm the next Billy Graham. Praise the Lord. But then the next week, I'd fall flat on my face. I'd be like, Cheryl, I need to quit. This is not my job. I don't even12:31 know what I'm doing. And I've had many therapy sessions with missus Hatch. Many where I wanted to give up, she had to counsel me and encourage me, and she has been there for me. But that but that's young in the ministry.12:42 Now can I tell you, I'm I'm over here? I'm I'm I'm not quite there, but I'm I'm over here. The swings aren't nearly as big as they were. Now there's a there's a bad news caveat to this.12:54 Because to get from here to here, it takes about 30 years. Alright? There's just there's no shortcut. There's no fast track to this. You you gotta just13:05 go through it. You gotta feel it. You gotta experience it. And you gotta learn that not every storm is worthy of an emotional, roller coaster.13:17 Not every challenge is worthy of you throwing up your hands and starting to curse and blame the devil and flying off the handle at all your loved ones. You get to a point where you've been13:28 there, you've done that, you got the t shirt, you got the record of God's faithfulness. He's gotten you through the storms in your twenties, in the storms in your thirties. He's gonna get you through the storm you're in13:38 right now. It's called maturity. So when the devil comes, you're not smacked upside the head. You're just like, oh, I expected you. I was wondering when you were going to show up because I just got blessed. I13:50 just got blessed. And after the blessing, the devil comes come on, somebody tries to steal the blessing. And you just say, oh, there he is. There he is. He's in my child right now. I see you. I see you. Oh, there he is.14:02 He's in my spouse right now. There he is. There he is. There he is. He's in my boss. He's in my coworker. I don't know where he is. He's right inside of me right now. You know what I'm saying? It could be anywhere from14:11 any place. And you get to that point where you're just you're you're not shocked anymore. And you just say, Lord, you've you've done it before. You'll do it again. I might just have to grin and bear it. 3014:23 years. Here's what I'm asking you guys to understand. There's a bunch of spiritual Pauls in the house. You raised your hand. You raised your hand a little while ago. I need you to start investing in some spiritual Tims.14:34 Or Paulina's and Tammy's. Amen. Guy to guy, girl to girl. Adam, you can take this whiteboard away. So that we grow we grow as a church, and we get14:46 stronger in our faith because, listen, everyone goes through spiritual lows. Everyone. Don't beat yourself up. But I got 3 confessions from Paul in this passage14:58 to empower your faith, to rekindle your faith when you're in those low moments. Number 1, write it down, I have promises in spite of the problems. I have promises in spite of the problems. The problems come. Hey, Paul15:09 was facing a problem. He was an apostle. He was an apostle in the first century. Now in our day, apostles are revered. In fact, we name our sons after them. Matthews are running around the world right now.15:21 Peters and James' and John's. They're all over the world. Paul's everywhere. We name our sons Matthew, Peter, James, and John. We name our dogs Caesar.15:34 Right? Because the Christian movement flipped the script on what's hallowed. But in the first century, apostles were vilified. They were ostracized. They were, antagonized. They were hated, and they were15:46 chased out of town and imprisoned and killed. Paul says, I'm an apostle in verse 1. Paul, an apostle. He wears it like a badge of honor. I'm an apostle of Christ Jesus. And then look at this line. By the will of God.15:58 By the will of God according underline this, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. Now these words carry so much weight when you realize where Paul wrote them from. He's in a Roman16:10 prison. He's not in a palace. He's in the pit. He's not on the top of the world, he's in the whole of hell. The pit that he's sitting in is called Maritime Prison. It's in Rome to this16:21 day. They they built a Catholic church on top of it, and you can take a tour through the prison where Paul and Peter were actually imprisoned. You take a spiral staircase down to the bottom, and what you see is that it's16:31 just this big cement circular room. At the top is a small little manhole grate cover where they would lower the prisoners in, and some 30 to 35 prisoners would all sit there, no beds, No toilet. No16:43 running water. All there. Just days after days, years after years, just sitting there waiting to see what was gonna happen. And the worst part about this prison is that they had a door. They had a trapdoor in the back of16:53 the prison that that was adjacent to the waste system. The Romans had the first aqueduct plumbing systems of the of the ancient world, and the waste plumbing would run along the back of that prison. And when the prison17:03 was overcrowded, just to get rid of all the prisoners real quick, they would lift up that door. The waste system would rush in and basically become like this humid toilet and drown them and and then suck them all out,17:14 and then they put new prisoners in. At any moment, Paul could experience that very fate. At any moment while he's writing these words to Timothy. You would think he would be in the pit. You would think he would be17:24 despondent. You would think you would need Timothy to minister to him. But this is that back end of the way for him. This is after you know you've been through some stuff. This is when you know that the viper stung your17:34 hand and it didn't kill you. When you were in the shipwreck and you survived a night and a day on the sea all alone. When you were beaten and stoned and dragged out of town and left for dead, and God kept you alive17:42 because He still had something to work through you, that you don't let the prison get ahold of you. You might be in a prison, but the prison isn't inside of you. God's still got a work for you to do.17:54 And what is his line? According to the promise of the life. Oh, I got the promise of the life that I got problems, I might be in prison, but I got promises. Can I ask you a question? Are you a problem18:06 talker or are you a promise talker? Amen. Some of you are problem talkers. You talk about all your problems all day. You got prayer requests coming out your ears. Can you pray for me? Can you help me? Can you pray for18:17 me? Can you help me? Can you pray me? Every single small group, and and and there is a place for this, a small group, but every single 1 is, can you pray for me? Can you pray for me? Can at some point, you gotta stop18:25 talking about the problems and start claiming the promises. You got the promise from Matthew 28 verse 20. I am with you. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm with you to the very ends of the age. You got the18:36 promise of John 14 27, my peace I give to you, a peace the world can't understand and take from you. You got the promise of Philippians 4 19, my God shall supply every need according to his riches and glory. Philippians18:48 4 13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. First John 4, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Isaiah 54, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Every tongue that rises up18:58 against me, I shall condemn. Learn and claim the promises of God over your life and start speaking promise, not problem. Number 2, I have19:10 faith in spite of my failures. I have faith in spite of my failures. Every Christian has spiritual lows. Listen, every Christian fails. Timothy was struggling with spiritual failures, professional19:22 failures, relational failures. So what does Paul do? He goes into full encouragement mode. I love this. I love these next 3 verses. Verse 3, I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did. As I remember19:34 you, I remember you constantly in my prayers. Hey, that's that's what a spiritual Paul does. He thinks of others, not himself. I'm thinking about you. I'm thinking about you. I'm thinking about you. And then in verse 4,19:45 I remember your tears. I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. Verse 5, I love this. I am reminded of your sincere faith. Underline, sincere faith. He says it came from your grandma, it came19:57 through your mom, and now it's in you. And I love this. Underline. I am sure dwells in you. You know, when you're going through spiritual lulls, you need somebody to come alongside of you and tell20:08 you you still got some faith in you. Now we know the the struggles of Timothy. Do you know why we know the struggles of Timothy? Because the book was written to him and only him. And I feel kind of bad for Timothy20:20 because, you know, it's on display for the world to see in first and second Timothy all of his issues because all of his issues are addressed by the apostle Paul. When he wrote to churches and he talked about the20:30 problems in the churches, it wasn't addressed to 1 single person. It was addressed to the corporate body. But for Timothy in first, second Timothy, and in Titus, he's talking to 1 individual. So we know that these issues20:41 were all Timothy's issues. Well, what were Timothy's issues? There's a whole bunch of them. We know from this passage that we just read, he's got fear rising up inside of him. That's why Paul says, God has not given you20:51 that spirit of fear. Why would Paul write that if Timothy did not have fear inside of him? We know that Timothy had, lost his flame, lost his passion. That's why Paul says fan it into flame. Come on. Rekindle it. This is21:02 on you. You can rekindle the flame. A couple other past problems that we know about Timothy from other passages. We know that he was facing external persecution from outside the church. It was illegal to be a Christian,21:13 so they were ramping up the persecution. And at any moment, Timothy could meet the same fate that Paul was experiencing. And so Paul says, share in suffering with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We know that also21:22 within the church, there were struggles. There were there was infighting in the church. Can you believe? Can you believe that that the early church, the first century church actually had disputes and anger and resentment21:33 toward each other? Like, that's so foreign to us today, isn't it? And and and get this, they had disputes about secondary doctrinal issues. They21:45 would fight and argue and fuss over words. And that's why Paul says, Timothy, charge them not to argue about words. They don't that doesn't do any good for anybody. Don't major on the minors. And so he has21:57 this external pressure. He has this internal, you know, conflict going on in the church. We also know that he was struggling with personal temptation because the bible says in second Timothy 2 22, Paul says, flee22:09 the youthful desires of lust. Your pastors also face temptations just like you. Timothy faced the temptations of lust and passions of the flesh. Paul says you gotta run away from that Timothy. Don't dabble with it. Don't22:20 mess with it. You can't win that battle. Just run as fast as you can. We also know that Timothy was young, and people let him know it. Because Paul says in first Timothy, let no 1 look down on you because you're young,22:31 but set an example for the believers in speech and faith and conduct. And we also know that Timothy, on top of all those struggles, external persecution, internal conflict in the church, the the the warring of the22:41 fleshly desires within him, and then him being young and inexperienced and being looked down upon, on top of all those troubles, he was also sickly. Because in first Timothy chapter 6, Paul says, hey. I know you got this22:52 serious, like, irritable bowel syndrome. Have some wine instead of just water because it's just gonna mess you up. So maybe have some wine. It'll purify the system. It'll, you know, kill the bad bacteria and all that23:01 kind of And so that Paul Paul who healed thousands, I always think about this. Paul who healed thousands, the Lord didn't allow him to heal Timothy. Timothy had to wrestle23:13 with that. Some of you, you say, why has God allowed this? I thought God healed. He does heal. Unfortunately, not everybody gets healed in this life. So Timothy's got these struggles, these problems. Everyone has23:25 problems. Everyone has struggles, and everyone has failures. And I imagine Timothy was just beating himself up. I'm just not a good pastor. I'm just not there yet. I just don't know how long it takes. What music23:36 to his ears must have been the words from Paul in chapter 1 verse 5. I am reminded of your faith, and I am sure it dwells in you right now. Can I give you some advice, Waters Church people?23:49 Learn to be an encourager of people's faith. Don't be a don't be an inspector of everybody's faith. We got too many people. They're self proclaimed, self24:00 appointed fruit inspectors in the church. Inspecting everybody else's fruit. You're always squeezing the melons. You're squeezing the melons and the peaches. Oh, they're not ripe. Oh,24:12 they're foul. Oh, they're this is what some of you think. That's your your spiritual gift is to critique the fruitfulness of other Christians. And you say, well, pastor, didn't didn't Jesus say you shall know them by24:22 their fruit? That's what I'm doing. I'm just knowing them by their fruit. Number 1, I guarantee you can't tell me where that passage came from nor can you tell me the context in which it was said. It comes from Matthew24:32 chapter 7. And the context, Jesus is talking about false teachers. He says, beware of false teachers. He says, they they're gonna come, wolves in sheep's clothing. You shall24:43 know them, false teachers, by their fruit. That passage is not giving every Christian an an excuse to look down on other Christians. That's calling on to church to identify false24:55 preachers. A lot of them are on television. A lot of them are in your television sets on the on the Christian programming. I shouldn't say too much because I'm on there as well. But anyway, there there's a lot of false25:05 teachers. You shall know them by their food. Are they greedy? Do they talk about their jets and their planes? Do they do they tell you that if you give to their ministry, God will give you 10 times as much? Are they25:17 are they committing adultery in and out of marriage? I just heard about 1 notable 1. He just divorced his wife for the second time. Same wife, 2 divorces. And still a huge swath of all.25:29 You shall know them by their fruits. But in the church, we need to be in the encouragement game. I see faith in you. I know you're going through a season and it's not done yet.25:41 Hey, I've been there. I've been in those lows. I was young in the faith too. I know what it's like. Hey, I've failed God too. I know what it's like. Hey, I've been there too. Can I tell you something? When I failed God,25:49 I learned the hard way, and you can learn now with me helping you that God doesn't give up on failed saints. God doesn't give up on faithless servants. The Bible says in second Timothy that when we are faithless, he26:00 remains faithful. So I don't know about you, but when I'm down, I need somebody to lift me up. I don't need somebody to come and squeeze my melons. Anybody know what I'm talking about? So so Paul says,26:12 listen. For this reason, because I know there's still faith in you. For this reason, I'm telling you, fan into flame the gift of God. Holy Spirit, please hold off the fire alarm. This is where it goes off every time26:22 every time. Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. Hey, write this down. Instead of questioning people's salvation, let's encourage their salvation.26:33 Oh, I'm not sure they're saved. I'm not sure they're saved. I'm not look at how she dresses. Oh, look at how he talks. Oh, look at how he lives. Oh, I don't understand. They can't get there. I'm not sure there's stop it.26:44 How about instead of talking about their salvation with other people, you talk to them and build them up in their salvation? Hey, I was praying about you this week. I was thinking about you this week. Hey, you26:56 know, you matter to me. I'm so glad that you're part of our church. Hey, I love you. I love you. Amen. This is this is what the church should be about because27:08 everyone goes through spiritual loads. They're unavoidable, but God's fullness is available. I have promises in spite of the problems. I have faith in spite27:20 of my failures. Number 3, I have the spirit in spite of my flesh. I have the spirit in spite of my flesh. The holy spirit dwells in every child of God who has confessed27:32 Jesus as lord. You understand? Jesus did not just come to forgive you of your sins, he's come to cleanse you of your sins so that the holy spirit can live inside of you. And when that spirit is inside27:44 of you, you are not powerless. You have Holy Ghost divine power in you. It's just waiting for you to waken it up.27:56 So he says in verse 7, God gave us a spirit, not a fear. God gave us a spirit. Amen? That's the holy spirit. And he doesn't come and bring anxiety. If you got anxiety, it doesn't come from God. He doesn't come and bring28:08 depression. If you got that, it's not from God. He comes and he gives you power. Dunamis in the Greek, from where we get the word dynamite from. Explosive power. Love, agape love, the love of God,28:20 shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Romans 5 verse 8. And self control, And we can we can conquer the enemy within through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you something.28:32 You're always gonna wrestle with the flesh. Every Christian does. Can I give you some hope? The Holy Spirit that dwells in you is stronger than the flesh that dwells in you.28:44 Did you hear that? Let me tell you what I didn't say. I did not say that your willpower is stronger than the flesh inside of you. I did not say that you can overcome the flesh inside of you. You can't.28:56 That's why the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. The third person of the Trinity, God, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you, and he's stronger than the flesh that wants to wreck you. So hear me. Here's29:07 what Paul says in Romans chapter 8. He says, if you live by the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body. How do you put the death how do you put the flesh to29:18 death? Through the Holy Spirit that is in you. You don't try to willpower yourself up. No. You reject that. When you're tempted, say, father, I'm being tempted. And I29:30 know my flesh wants to give in, and I know I'm not strong enough to beat it. So I need you to do it for me. Here's a simple prayer. I want you write it down in your notes. There's no place to fill in the blanks, it's a29:41 simple prayer. When you're stressed, when you're overwhelmed, when you're tempted, when the flesh is rising up, here it is. Ready? Holy Spirit, help me. It's29:53 a very simple prayer. Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, help me. Help me to30:05 put to death this this foul and unclean spirit. Help me to put to death this worry and anxiety. Help me to put to death this sense of I need to control everything. Help me to put to death this this emotional roller30:15 coaster situation that I'm riding on right now. But let me let me just remind everybody in the room right now, everybody watching online, you need the Holy Spirit. You get the Holy Spirit when you surrender your life to30:27 Jesus Christ. That's the only way. That's the only way. So I wanna give you a chance right now to say yes to the Holy Spirit. Yes to Jesus Christ. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?30:40 Father, I'm asking in this moment that hearts are open to receive Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins so that they can know the power that comes30:52 within through the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.30:58 Thank you for listening to this message from Waters Church. For more information or to visit 1 of our local assemblies, please visit waters church dot org. God bless, and have a great31:10 day.
156K followers
Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
156K followers
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